2010-09-09T08:19:24Z Marilyn Rae-Menzies Copyright 2010, Marilyn Rae-Menzies SPHPBLOG




Yarns were thrown all over the floor, but the shelves did not fall down and it did not take too long to get them back up in place again.



And here is another view of the yarns on the floor, also showing my latest commissioned tapestry on the loom. Luckily this had no damage either. I have been working for about two weeks on this tapestry and it is going along nicely.



One of the saddest sights I have seen today is the cutting down of the old gingko tree in the South Quad. I can see this tree from the window of my studio. Unfortunately it has had to come down because it is very close to the Observatory Tower, which also has to come down, little bit by little bit. I do hope that it will be able to be rebuilt, but am not sure yet whether that will be the case. Below is the view from my window showing the Observatory Tower and the gingko tree in the process of losing its life. I think it was one of the first trees to be planted in the Arts Centre, so a very sad day to lose it. I can't imagine the Arts Centre without the Observatory Tower and am just going to hate watching that come down too.







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Friends enjoying the evening. Caroline Bull, in the purple scarf,is chatting to Gwen Cairney with two of my sisters-in-law, Claire to the left and Marilyn to the right, looking on. Caroline and her husband Geoff Low, brought a friend, whom they introduced to me as Richard, to the cutting off and I was awed and excited when I discovered that he was none other than Richard Nunns, who is a most amazing musician specializing in ancient Maori music and bird song. He gave us a wonderful surprise, when to quieten the crowd so that I could introduce Lissie, he brought out a greenstone whistle and beautiful bird song suddenly filled the studio. Awesome! Thank you so much, Richard.



Here I am introducing Lissie, standing in front of the tapestry.



Lissie cutting the warp threads.



And here it is, the right way up at last.



And today after lunch and a very hectic morning, a very understanding student who put up with me rushing here and there and giving her only a little attention, pinning and sewing the side seams and the velcro on to the tapestry, gluing the velcro to the baton and finally we were able to hang it on a wall in a spare studio in the Arts Centre and photographs were taken. Here are Lissie and I posing while 15yr old Connor takes our photo with the finished or almost finished tapestry. Still some threads to sort out at the back of the work and the sides to be finished stitching. All good and so pleased to have it finished after so long.]]> http://www.tapestry.co.nz/blog/index.php?entry=entry100809-222142 2010-08-09T00:00:00Z 2010-08-09T00:00:00Z
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Here is the tapestry still hanging on the wall in the Chamber, whilst discussions go on as to the best way to take it down.



Rolling the tapestry from the bottom



The guys balancing on top of the ladders as they gingerly remove the tapestry from the nails, lifting it out and down.



And down it comes! Me! I was on the other end of the camera, watching proceedings and thankful that they didn't drop it. I don't own this work any more, but it is surprising how proprietal I feel about it.



And here I am! Almost finished vacuuming the tapestry. It was quite dusty, especially along the top where it was attached to the baton.

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On the weekend of the 7th August my daughter Lissie and her husband Ian and son Connor are coming to Christchurch. Lissie is going to cut the tapestry off the loom and we will have a celebration. It will be so good to have this tapestry finished. It has been on the loom for so long and it is now time to get on with other work. Since my last posting on Monday of last week I have progressed a lot and there is now two more weeks left to finish the work. I think I am on track to do this. ]]> http://www.tapestry.co.nz/blog/index.php?entry=entry100725-082959 2010-07-24T00:00:00Z 2010-07-24T00:00:00Z



And now at last I can see Lissie's second eye. If you tip your head to the left and look at the work that way, the eye is quite clear. Hurrah!

I am getting there. I went into the studio early today and worked really hard and on the left side I have only about three inches to weave to get to the top. The border at the left has reached the top.]]> http://www.tapestry.co.nz/blog/index.php?entry=entry100719-173833 2010-07-19T00:00:00Z 2010-07-19T00:00:00Z



These two photos were taken on Thursday 15th July and as you can see I am moving up reasonably quickly. Yesterday I completed the second eye and moved up even further, so I am hoping that today I will complete the top of her eye - the blue secton to the left. I still have three weeks to go if I want to get my entry in for the Art Award exhibition that I am aiming to finish this tapestry for. Still not sure I will make it but am feeling more hopeful now. Working very hard each day seven days a week at the moment. Thankfully my body seems to be coping quite well with the extra work, long may it last!!]]> http://www.tapestry.co.nz/blog/index.php?entry=entry100717-090735 2010-07-16T00:00:00Z 2010-07-16T00:00:00Z

As you can see from this photo I am now working on the left hand side of the tapestry, building up the second eye. The last two mornings here in Christchurch have been very cold, minus 6 degrees centigrade yesterday morning and not much better this morning, so good frosts have covered the ground. My hands have been so cold that it has been hard to weave and I spend a lot of time dropping the bobbins. It is almost lunch time before the studio warms up properly, so it is a bit of a battle. ]]> http://www.tapestry.co.nz/blog/index.php?entry=entry100712-222530 2010-07-12T00:00:00Z 2010-07-12T00:00:00Z




This photograph shows a close-up detail of the tapestry.



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This photo was atually taken over maybe two to three weeks ago when I had just completed the shadow on Lissie's nose.



A lot has happened since the last photograph and this photograph was taken four days ago.



And this one two days ago. I am working, as you can see, on the right hand side of the tapestry, building up the dark areas. There are lots of small colours coming into this section of the tapestry but they are not really visible in these distance photographs. I will post some details soon.

The photographs do not show the correct colours of the work as they are hugely influenced by the light in the studio when I take the photos and as they are only progress shots I am not being too careful to get the light absolutely right to take the best photograph.

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If anyone reading this blog is contemplating a holiday in New Zealand at some time why not book a week or two week's accommodation and tuition with me in my home and studio in Christchurch. You can contact me from this blog page or e-mail or phone me at any time. Contact numbers are on my website.]]> http://www.tapestry.co.nz/blog/index.php?entry=entry100621-093505 2010-06-20T00:00:00Z 2010-06-20T00:00:00Z

Anita's time in my studio is fast coming to its end as it is now Thursdy evening and she is flying home to Australia on Saturday afternoon. Her tapestry is looking good with the last exercises to do tomorrow. Saturday morning will be spent in cutting off the tapestry and finishing it ready for hanging.



Anita started her tapestry with simple straight lines and stripes to enable her to get used to the weaving process, concentrating on bubbling the weft so that it would not be too tight. Curves with an outline introduced her to building shapes and weaving the circle was another lesson in shape building. A circle is one of the most difficult shapes to weave. The black and white pick and pick came next and this is a very interesting technique which can find a multitude of uses within a tapestry.

One of the most important techniques learn is the simple hatching. This technique is one of the main ways of blending colours and involves recognizing the different sheds to allow the different colours to overlap.

The blue shapes are indicative of cloud shapes and here Anita was learning the difference between hard edged shapes and how to soften them by mixing the colours together on one bobbin.


Today she worked on regular hachures, weaving the long arrow shapes the was a technique prevalent in the early tapestries for blending colour. The last exercise is a series of diagonal lines, learning how to weave straight diagonals and outline the shapes to form lines.

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Don't you love the colours, rich reds, russets and oranges. For the last two days Anita has been working on colour blending through hatching, learning how to mix and blend colours that contrast and also those that create subtle blends. This afternoon she started building small blue shapes within a red/russet background in preparation for the weaving of her first tapestry.

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Here are some images of the opening night of the exhibition in the Cloisters Gallery.



Leslie, Diane and Meg chatting at the opening.

Here we see Ria chatting with Jean, Gwen,Dave and Sue in the background.





Here we see two overviews of the exhibition. The tapestries are stitched on to boards that are covered in black cloth. The brief for this exhibition was that the tapestries could be any size or shape up to 20 x 20cm. The black boards set off the tapestries beautifully and they all slot easily into one big box for the travelling. The first exhibition was held a year or so after Archie Brennan's visit to New Zealand in 1993 and we have managed to keep it going albeit not every year since. ]]> http://www.tapestry.co.nz/blog/index.php?entry=entry100601-090419 2010-05-31T00:00:00Z 2010-05-31T00:00:00Z



Here are the last images from Helen's Studio Experience and workshop with me. She is now winging her way home to China. I asked her if she would write a little about her experience here in my studio and has given me permission to do with it what I want. So here is her story.

.....................................................

Recently, I completed a tapestry workshop with Marilyn Rea-Menzies of Christchurch, New Zealand. The experience included six hours of daily studio time and accommodation at Marilyn's home. I must say that both the instruction and the accomodations were excellent, and Marilyn a marvelous teacher and a most gracious hostess who never once groused over my many interruptions while she did correspondence with friends and family or her daily Art at the Ktchen Table series of pen drawings. Let me share with you some of the lessons I learnt from Marilyn through our many discussions at the loom and the kitchen table.

Tapestry is more than the conjunction of warp and weft. It is art. It is bilingual, for it is spoken of in the languages of weaving and art. Also, it is intellectually challenging because the weaver is constantly engaged in interpretative and adaptive decision-making. More significantly, tapestry is passion, not patience.

At every juncture of the weaver's interaction with weft and warp is a constant decision-making, from design concept to the act of weaving itself. How to convey, using weft, one's vision? How is a non-artist, like me, to proceed from my own design conception to actual design to cartoon to tapestry? Marilyn Rea-Menzies showed me a manageable soloution to this dilemma that provides a foundation for my continued growth as a tapestry artist.

The act of weaving is the act of constantly adapting. I learned that inflexibility is not a desirable attitude in tapestry weaving; instead, you adapt according to the interpretative decisions that you make. It is this constant adaptation and interpretation that makes tapestry so intellectually demanding, I think.

Interpretation is a key aspect that is played out in color, tone, shape, texture, weft and other aspects of tapestry. Since the tapestry itself is a work of art, it needn't be - or shouldn't - be a replication of another work, either by oneself or someone else. Instead, the tapestry is an interpretation of the design as one conveys it from paper to warp and weft.

I must confess that I came to Marilyn's workshop with a somewhat pedestrian perspective on tapestry' however, I've been converted to realize that it is art, in and of itself. It is passion, too.

Though some tapestry projects can be of long duration, tapestry is passion because the creative and interpretative acts that compel you forward requires that quality, and not patience. I have a somewhat limited supply of patience, but tapestry never begins to plum either its surface or depths.

These are some of the lessons instilled during my two-week workshop with Marilyn Rea-Menzies, and they have become the firm foundation of my future as a weaver. I will always remain profoundly grateful to Marilyn for the insight, the patience, humor, and the passion with which she taught me.

Great workshop; excellent teacher!

Helen Cadogan
15/5/2010]]> http://www.tapestry.co.nz/blog/index.php?entry=entry100518-090954 2010-05-17T00:00:00Z 2010-05-17T00:00:00Z

This photo shows Helen photographing her tapestry after working on it for the first week of her stay in the studio. Below is a closeup of the tapestry.

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Here you can see all the drawings from my first sketch book for the year. On the wall to the left is Wilson Henderson's double weave wall-hanging and to the right are Anne Field's posters for her weaving books and two wallhangings.



In January of this year I decided to try and do one sketch a day of whatever was on my kitchen table that day. I have found that that is quite difficult to do, as sometimes I have already drawn what is there on any given day. So I have taken to bringing stuff on to my table and drawing it. It is very much a discipline to do a sketch every day and some days I do not manage to do it. Best not to feel guilty about it, as Tommye Scanlon told me. Tommye is a tapestry weaver in America who has set up the blog 'Tapestry Days' for those of us who are doing a daily drawing or tapestry discipline. It is a great incentive to keep going with this work. My lace tablecloth features in many of the drawings. I have found that my sketching skills are improving with doing so much drawing. It takes me about an average of half an hour to do each drawing, sometimes using pencil, sometimes ink and sometimes ink with a watercolour wash. My confidence with watercolour is also growing.

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Riko visited the studio on Sunday afternoon with her husband Hugh and the two boys, Alex and Matthew. Here is a photograph of myself with Helen, Riko and young Alex.

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Yesterday afternoon was spent getting to know each other and deciding just what she needed to know about weaving tapestries. We worked on the concepts for weaving a couple of small tapestries while she is here. Today we completed the cartoons and for the first time Helen wound a tapestry warp on a warping mill and warped up my Vapapu two shaft tapestry loom. We used the 12/9 warp cotton at 10 ends per inch at a width of six and a half inches.

Riko Rickard, a young Japanese girl who is just getting back into weaving after having two small children, the eldest of whom has just started school, is coming into the studio two days a week and is setting up an eight shaft table loom to weave a double weave experimental piece. In the following photograph Riko is watching Helen adjust the tension on her warp.








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